and this morning i felt pretty positive the president was flying back from his hawaii vacation, republicans seemed to be in the mood to try to get this done, and they could bridge this gap. but you know, my conversations with some of the republican leaders is that not much was accomplished today. and as you know, john, the clock is ticking. what are we, 72 hours away from going over that cliff? i'm not sure this is going to get resolved right new. looks like we may go into january without a deal. >> stephen moore saying we're going off the cliff. we've got new details on the plan, the president's scaled-down proposal. here's what's on the table. extend the current tax rates for 98% of americans, incomes up to $250,000. extend unemployment benefits, that's an important point. not being talked about enough. extending the alternative minimum tax patch. prevents cuts in payments to doctors who treatment medicare payments. -- patients. would this scaled-down proposal save us from economic disaster? >> we've done a tremendous amount of damage to ourselves, embarrassing ourselves around the world.